Columbia Senior AdvisorHow does Columbia Senior Advisor source its facts?
Every rule we describe is tied to the text of Regulation 60-84 or to the statute or agency page it came from, and every number traces to one named publication: CareScout's March 2026 South Carolina cost release, SCDHHS bulletin MB# 26-001 for OSS, the July 2026 SCDHHS waiver chart, the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates and the VA's current pension tables.
These are the documents we work from, in the order families most often need them:
- S.C. Code Regs. 60-84, Standards for Community Residential Care Facilities (DPH, May 2025)
- DPH Community Residential Care program page
- DPH Find a Facility (licensed facility map and data)
- DPH Healthcare Quality Enforcement Actions
- SCDHHS Medicaid Bulletin MB# 26-001: 2026 OSS rates and personal needs allowance
- SCDHHS HCBS Waiver Summary Chart, July 2026
- SCDHHS Residential Personal Care scope of services (July 1, 2025)
- SCDHHS PACE enrollment snapshot and county coverage
- S.C. DSS Adult Protective Services reporting
- CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, South Carolina
- VA Veterans Pension rates
- CMS Care Compare Provider Information
- U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 county estimates by age, South Carolina
- S.C. Department on Aging: Area Agencies on Aging by region
- Central Midlands Council of Governments (Area Agency on Aging)
- Lower Savannah Council of Governments Aging and Disability Programs
- Upper Savannah Council of Governments Area Agency on Aging
- U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 city and town estimates, South Carolina
What does Columbia Senior Advisor refuse to publish?
Anything we cannot trace back to a primary record: invented averages, facility claims that are not in DPH or CMS data, testimonials, star ratings of our own making and reviews.
- No Columbia or Midlands price median; the only published South Carolina cost figures are statewide.
- No memory care price median; nobody surveys one.
- No grade or ranking for assisted living buildings; neither DPH nor CMS rates them, and a home-made score would mislead.
- No amenities or prices lifted from operator marketing.
When is the Midlands directory rebuilt?
Each rebuild pulls DPH's current license file (the version on the site is dated November 6, 2026), every monthly DPH enforcement report through September 2026 and the CMS nursing home file dated October 1, 2026; the fetch script can be rerun at any time.
Listing pages print their data date in the source line. The sitemap's last-modified date for a page moves only when that page's text actually changes, not on every rebuild.
How do star ratings and DPH orders appear on the site?
Nursing home stars are shown only where CMS publishes them, in CMS's own terms and with CMS's data date, and DPH orders are condensed from the monthly reports with the month, the type of order and any penalty stated there.
When a facility page says a home staffs above or below the Midlands median, or that a building is larger than the typical senior CRCF here, that is simple arithmetic on the published figures, and the page names the comparison group.
How are mistakes fixed?
Write to advisors@columbiasenioradvisor.com with the page address and what needs changing. We fix display errors ourselves; a wrong license field or CMS figure has to be corrected at its source, and we will tell you which agency to contact.
When a benefit amount or regulation changes, we check the new figure in the agency's own document first, update the reference page that owns it, and then every guide that quotes it.
